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Linguistics Terms in Chinese

*Common terms found in textbooks, on tests, etc. that no one has ever taught me explicitly; will update periodically through reblogs－please share if you know other ones!! We can use these words to talk about our study, ask for help, or better understand test questions and practice sets.

语法 －grammar

生词 － vocabulary

口语 －speaking 

写字 －writing 

阅读 －reading 

跨文化交际 － cross-cultural communication 

汉字 － characters 

拼音 － pinyin 

偏胖 － character radicals (e.g. 口袋的口）

名词 －noun

动词 －verb

副词 － adverb 

状语 －adverb phrase

量词 －measure word

连词 －conjunction 

句子 －sentence 

主语 － subject of a sentence 

分句 － sentence clause 

注释 －explanatory notes 

不同点 －differences 

对话 － dialogue 

专有名词 －Proper nouns

词义 －meaning of a word, definition

形合 －a linguistics term that literally means “shape focused;” it refers to the way that languages like English focus more heavily on structures like grammar to be intelligible; in contrast to the below term, 意合

意合 －a linguistics term that literally means “meaning focused;” it refers to languages like Chinese that focus more heavily on meaning, so they can rely on repetition of certain words or phrases within a sentence or utterance without sounding redundant; in contrast to the above term, 形合

练习 － practice

复习－review 

预习 － preview 

考试 －test

做作业 － do homework

例如 － example 

判断对错。 － judge true or false. 

题 － question (usually 第 + # + 题）

请选出真确回答。 － choose the correct answer.

选词填空。－fill in the blanks.

排列顺序。－ arrange / put in order of sequence.

部分 －part (usually 第 + # + 部分）

完成句子 － finish the sentences. 

chinese hanfub by 瞳莞汉服

Some chinese resources (found in this article: https://kaohongshu.blog/2019/12/03/should-i-read-chinese-texts-above-my-level/

Where do I find suitable online reading resources?

Free online resources:

My Chinese Reading (all levels) *I’ve used this it’s great, especially as graded reading material that gradually increases in difficulty in a manageable way

Mandarin Bean (all levels)

HSK reading (all levels) *Just looked, seems good for finding graded reading material specific to HSK level

Chinese Reading Practice (all levels) *I’ve used this, also great for graded reading material that manageably increases in difficulty

Just learn Chinese (all levels)

The Marco Polo Project (advanced)

Mandarin version of the New York Times (advanced)

BBC news in Mandarin Chinese (advanced)

Chinese news from Deutsche Welle (advanced)

Project Gutenberg in Chinese (highly advanced)

An Annotated Collection of Digitized Chinese Texts for Students of Chinese Language and Culture (highly advanced) *I’m looking at this right now and a ton of useful material

©AirRabbitYan

Roadtrip snacks and essentials

reading web novels/articles for traditional chinese mandarin language learners

if you’re like me and want to eventually make reading your primary way of learning chinese characters, you’ll notice that a lot of the resources online are using simplified characters. new tong wen tang (chrome; firefox) is a browser extension that will help you convert webpages between simplified and traditional chinese. and regardless of the writing system, another helpful extension to have is zhongwen (chrome; firefox), which adds the ability to hover over a chinese character and see a pop-up containing the pinyin and english translation of a word.

before enabling the two extensions (notice how everything is in simplified!):

after enabling new tong wen tang and zhongwen (text has been converted to traditional chinese and doesn’t interfere with zhongwen’s pop-up dictionary):

Typing Pinyin Tones (macbook & iphone)

((I have apple products so I can't speak for windows computers or other brands. PLEASE add to this if you know how to do this for other products!))

Have you, like me, been typing everything into google translate to copy and paste the pinyin of words?

Have you, like me, been using the english keyboard holding button trick to get accents to pop up for à á ā and been using â for a 3rd/low tone because that was your only option??

NEVER AGAIN FRIENDS!

Typing Tones on an iPhone

First, you must have a pinyin-based Chinese keyboard on your phone. I'm assuming if you're learning Chinese you probably already have this?? So I'm skipping that part.

Go to the place where you want to type the pinyin and switch to your pinyin chinese keyboard

Hold the vowel you want and above it, the 4 tones will pop up

Slide your finger over to the on you want and let go (see image below)

That's it?? You now have pinyin and the suggestions for characters will go away!!

Typing Pinyin on a Macbook Computer

This is a bit trickier, bear with me.

Go to Settings/System Preferences

Go to Keyboard > Input Sources

Hit the little plus sign

4. Hit ABC - Extended and then hit "add"

Okay, you now have access to all four tone marks you need! You just need the codes for how to type it! These are the codes, you type these before any vowel to get the tone you want.

Option⌥ + a = 1st/high tone (ā)

Option⌥ + e = 2nd/rising tone (á)

Option⌥ + v = 3rd/low tone (ǎ)

Option⌥ + ` (just below escape key) = 4th/falling tone (à)

Note: for ü with an accent, you can use the above codes + v  (e.g. ⌥ + a + v = ǖ)

If you ever forget, you can go up to your language input at the top header by the bluetooth/battery buttons and click "Show Keyboard Viewer." This will show you all the keys and when you press and hold Option⌥, it will show you all the possible key combinations (plus all the other features on this extended keyboard, it has quite a bit compared to the regular one!!)

Hope this was helpful!!! I'm so excited that I never have to go back and forth from google translate ever again :D

Reading rec list for chinese learners. This is not exhaustive, if you find stuff that works for you then go for it! This is also not perfect, you may find stuff a bit easier or harder is more ideal for you. (By "know" below I mean you recognize the word as familiar, have studied or looked it up at some point, and so if you need to look it up again in reading you will learn it longer term fairly easily because of the repeated exposure to it in reading).

Know ~500 words?

Mandarin Companion Graded Readers. I recommend the Sherlock one, and the Journey to the Center of the Earth one. All Mandarin Companion books are excellent for beginners though.

Pleco Graded Readers - I recommend The Butterfly Lovers. There are a lot of Pleco Graded readers though, so you can pick based on amount of unique words (some Graded readers on Pleco go up to 2000 unique words).

Know ~1000-1500 words?

Sinolingua Chinese Graded Readers. There are several, and I started with the 500 word one. They somewhat match up with HSK and I found them more challenging than the Mandarin Companion graded readers. They have a vocabulary list in the back of the book and footnotes to help you study. They are a good bridge to get you from graded readers to other materials. I found the 1000 and 2000 word book equally difficult.

Pleco Graded readers, which include readers from 1000-2000 unique words.

Start delving into manhua! If you're ready and feel like it! Easier manhua will be slice of life setting ones, and ones based on something you're already familiar with. So if you've watched the Untamed or read 魔道祖师, then the manhua will be easier for you. If you've watched The Lost Tomb Reboot, then try out the slice of life comedy manhua spin off 盗墓笔记重启日常向 https://m.ac.qq.com/comic/index/id/649452. My Story 他们的故事 is a gl manhua which is slice of life and easy to read, as is 19天. There's also more genre specific manhua which I waited a bit to read, but if you're familiar with the story they may be doable like 2ha's manhua and 破云 manhua.

Know ~1500-2000 words?

Start getting into easier novels. Suggestions include 活着 (anything by this author is often recommended to learners, I have not actually read anything by him yet), 小王子 (this was my first not-graded-reader novel I finished reading in chinese, it was a bit challenging, I used a english/Chinese copy so I could look up words occasionally), 笑猫日记: 会唱歌的猫 (I highly recommend this series of books, they're for kids and fairly straightforward, set in a city so decently useful words are used, with a lot of chengyu that's commonly used so they're worth learning, I read 2 of these novels), 他们的故事 by 一根黄瓜丝儿 (a bl novel that's first person, generally uses a lot of common daily life words, and is fairly straightforward, I've read half and it was the first real novel I tried to read in chinese). These novels can be tried earlier on if you're more willing to use a click dictionary, which is what I did (except for 小王子 since I had a print copy). 论如何错误地套路一个魔教教主 The Wrong Way to a Demon Sect Leader (a fairly easy wuxia bl read).

Also in general anything you've read before in a language you understand, is going to be easier to read in chinese than something brand new.

Feeling brave? Up for a challenge?

撒野 and anything by that author uses a lot of more everyday language and is an easier read than some other webnovels. 盗墓笔记 does not use particularly hard language outside of the tomb genre words which if you're reading then you need to look up and learn anyway eventually (the slang in it is a bit hard but also worth learning so the cursing etc trips you up less later in other stuff you read), if you've seen the show before its doable to read. Scum Villain Self Saving System is on the easier end of mxtx novels to read, especially if youre already familiar with the plot.

Know ~2000 words?

The same novels as before apply. But now you may need a dictionary a bit less. Stuff like 撒野 will now be a bit less difficult, still challenging. Now other novels will start to be doable as desired, if you're using a dictionary. So go have fun looking into whatever webnovels you're interested in.

(I made a list of difficulty ratings of various webnovels in my rec list tag, you may want to check out that list. A quick gadget though is like... 撒野 author is easier than 盗墓笔记 author, then mxtx, then priest (and tian ya ke and zhenhun are easier than silent reading and sha po lang), and poyun was higher on the difficulty scale, 2ha was fairly hard. Basically the more vocabulary or thicker the paragraphs, the harder it's gonna be. Or the less familiar you are with a given genre).

At ~2000 words or more I'd say reading with a click dictionary feels quite doable, although a slog if you pick a harder novel so gauge what feels an okay level for you personally to read. And if you feel like reading without a dictionary, you'll have to explore a bit to see what's comprehensible to you without one.

Some language learning exercises and tips

These are some of the activities I do. Maybe you'll find them helpful:

Write a mock dating profile for yourself. Describe yourself, list your hobbies and interests, hopes for the future, likes and dislikes, and the qualities you're looking for in a partner. Enjoyed it? Write one for your favourite character/OC.

Try to find a Youtuber who plays your favourite game and does commentary in your target language. I watch this guy a lot.

Describe locations in your favourite books, games, movies, TV shows etc. I like to wander the Hitman maps and write about the different areas, NPCs, and situations I observe.

Write a mock interview with your character/influential figure of choice.

Choose a fairy tale and write your interpretation of it in your target language.

When you're cooking, say what you're doing out loud as if you were talking to a studio audience.

Imagine your mutuals are coming to your city for a visit. Write up a lil guidebook for them describing places of interest. Write an itinerary to practice using the future tense and "first", "then", "after that", etc statements.

A chalk marker might be useful to you. I write important words and phrases that I'm having trouble remembering on my bathroom mirror. I just wipe them away with a damp cloth later.

Review books, albums, movies etc in your target language. Either write down your review or record yourself talking about it.